Kevin Metcalfe is an honest man; he has worked hard, earning money at numerous and various labor-intensive jobs his entire life, sometimes working several at a time. Larry Kuahuia was a career criminal, convicted of over a dozen charges including assault and rape.
Kevin is also a medical cannabis (marijuana) patient. He knows first-hand the unique benefits of cannabis as medicine, sometimes the only thing that works and gives a person a life of quality. Further, he is a compassionate person by nature and so, agreed to grow for others who could not.

Kevin has lived and worked in many states across this country and his life-journey led him to Hawaii, to Ocean View Estates, in fact. Once there, he determined to build a house for himself and his family, and possibly retire there. But there was trouble in this paradise they thought they had found.
As he went thru all the effort to build something there Ė they donít have a lot of trees and stuff so EVERYTHING needs to be expensively shipped in - someone kept stealing tools and material. Kevin didnít feel alone, however. The same thing was occurring all thru his neighborhood. And it wasnít just the taking of stuff, someone got assaulted too.

But, when the medical cannabis garden was established, and that too became a target, and Kevin had to draw a line. Understand, it wasnít about money or material things. At his trial, the prosecution - successfully we must say Ė spun this story as one of a drug deal gone bad, of people on drugs behaving badly Ė when such is not the case.
Kevin was trying to avoid the pit-of-the-stomach feeling when your medicine is gone and you get to look forward to a painful, miserable period of existence until you get some more. He was also thinking of his patients going thru the same thing. So he duly reported it to the police and initiated the expense and hassle of putting in a security system.

Kevin had been worried about the brazen robberies in the neighborhood. He wanted this robber detained, and held for the police to arrest and held accountable for his escalating, and fearless attempts to rob people while they are in their homes, sitting with their families, or robbing them while they were sleeping. Kevin had been reaching out to the neighbors that he knew lived alone, concerned for their safety also. Kevin knew that people were scared to be so far from police protection that they were vulnerable for any kind of attack.
We know now, the thief was Larry Kuahuia, member of one of the largest families in the state. What, if anything, the police did to investigate is unknown at this time. It is known that several more robberies occurred before Kevinís unfortunate encounter with the perpetrator of this tragedy.

Kevin was going over a new surveillance system that he had just installed in his garage/ohana after working all day on the lot next to the garage. He was checking to see if anyone had entered the cameras field earlier in that day, as the cord did not reach to the house for the surveillance system to be observed from there, and he had to walk over to the garage to view the days past events. While doing so the alarm system began ringing and did so for about four minutes while he tried to see why it was ringing. At first, he believed he, not knowing the new system, had set it off somehow himself. When, suddenly, a mans face appeared in the screen and he appeared to be crouching, cutting into the greenhouse with something.
At this point, Kevin grabbed his shotgun, which he had loaded with birdshot, and ran outside. He expected to encounter what he knew to be more then one person, since in the 6 previous burglaries they had to have a few people to carry off the patients crop and other things taken, being more then one person could carry alone. When he reached the area where the robber stood he asked them to get on the ground at which time the perpetrator charged Kevin yelling profanities, his right hand holding the hacksaw upraised above his head, and his left hand trying to reach for Kevinís gun barrel.

At this time itís critical to note two things; Kevin is holding a flash light perpendicular to the gun barrel, and the perpetrator has ran past his exit point where he could have safely ran away and continues on advancing at Kevin. When Kevin fired the warning shot along the perpetrators left foot, he dropped the light with the gun discharge, and could no longer see.
At this point it is possible the perpetrator turned to the right to go back to the exit he could have used to escape earlier in the encounter and that is where he got struck left side back, as reported by the pathologist at his trial. Kevin testified he could no longer see and the gun - a three-shot, no pump, semi-automatic - just quickly fired the next rounds before he could even think. The whole encounter didnít last longer than 3 seconds.

The perpetrator continued on away from Kevin and off the property, later to expire.
Kevin did not intend on even hurting anyone let alone killing someone, he had rifles if that would have been his intent. The state, possibly to cover its butt for failing to protect him, decided to try Kevin with murder, even after the Grand Jury refused to indict, anyway. And, just for good measure, added a gun charge. Then, made it stick, getting their conviction thru a carefully orchestrated semblance of a trial.

The prosecution made Kevin out to be a dope grower who, by growing marijuana invited this to occur and they should put a stop to what the court feels is crime being caused by this medical marijuana farce. So, basically, Kevin was convicted of murder for growing a modest legally licensed crop for a cancer patient in Oceanview. Modest - because there was 2/3 less then what he could have had - and yet the only medicine that allow a quality of life for Kevinís patient and so many others.
A crop that was about finished, which the thief knew of from previous sneaking around and waiting for Kevin to get it finished. Pity it was just so he could then steal it instead of just growing his own or better yet even, growing it for someone else who was too sick to do so, like Kevin was doing. Friends and family of Kevin believe he got two 20 year sentences because of his compassionate nature, first for helping others then by firing a warning shot first instead of just shooting the thief on sight.

But the perpetrator of all this, Larry, the thief, wasnít done with being involved with taking from Kevin yet. Now his family, possibly upset with the loss of ďincomeĒ, wants some extra pounds of flesh and is suing Kevin for everything Larry didnít get on his previous shopping sprees.
Maybe Kevin can get some help from the neighborhood? There were hundreds of robberies in Kevinís Ďhood before and none since Mr. Kuahuias demise. The savings to these homeowners is probably considerable and maybe they can help with his defense.

This miscarriage of justice could happen to anyone, it could happen to you.
Or someone you care about.

What To Do?

Educate. Part of the bigotry involved is that cannabis, aka marijuana, is not medicine, so, therefore, people who use it are just dopers and addicts. Therefore, theyíre bad people, deserving of punishment, and the state doesnít protect them - anybody can pick on them, take from them.
This is what is being taught by the state of Hawaii and was no doubt part of Mr. Kuahuias belief system. Also that people only do it for the money, so thereís lots of money there, etc., when most growers are just trying to take care of one or more sick and dying people at their own expense.

We should also educate growers and cardholders on non-lethal self-defense and protection of property. And more.
And help with Kevinís defense.

How To Do It

Itís a matter of getting out the word. So spread it, and lets work to prevent this in the future as we set Kevin free.
Visit Ė www.HelpFreeKevin.com - and tell everybody you know. Then everybody you donít know Ö yet.

About the Author: Perry Stripling is
webster for Friend Of Kevin and
President of
MERCY Ė the Medical Cannabis Resource Center.

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This page ( /news/2010/Rest_Of_The_Gold.html ) was last
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